New Verona dent-removal business is combining with Oakmont venture
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Verona’s business landscape continues to change with the addition of a distinctive new service that has moved into the area.
Unitary Dent Removal now occupies the space at 501 Allegheny River Blvd., and owner Delwin Cosia offers a mobile repair service.
“We go to customer’s houses,” he said, “and our whole thing is to save you time and money on a repair. We go to you. You can come to us to if you wish, but we are fully mobile and ready to go.”
Cosia specializes in paintless dent removal, with various specialized techniques to smooth out dings.
“You can use a glue-and-pull technique,” he said. “That’s when you use hot glue and glue tabs to pull a dent out. Another way to do it is to wind the window down and get window access through a panel in order to massage a dent out. You can also remove a panel to get a dent out or even take a tail light out if you have to in order to massage the dent out.”
Cosia learned the skill from a friend who also worked in the dent-removal business, and his buddy allowed Cosia to shadow him for about six months before Cosia felt comfortable to start making repairs on his own. He then travelled to California to take classes on dent repair and came back fully certified in the field.
He now serves car dealerships, body shops and individual clients with services that also include more traditional body work, and he’s in the process of finalizing a joint venture with Land and Sea Custom Detailing in Oakmont in which the two businesses both will operate out of Cosia’s Verona location, making additional services such as car and boat detailing and ceramic wraps available at the same venue.
“I wanted to get them in here so we can run our business symbiotic. I think it’s a great partnership, they’re good guys and we have good energy,” Cosia said.
He also operates a series of similar businesses in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., but his wife originally is from Squirrel Hill and has a large family in Pittsburgh area. So the couple now live full-time in Penn Hills with their newborn, while Cosia travels between locations.
“It’s been tough doing the back and forth,” he said, “but you’ve just got to make sure you find good help.” He currently has three employees working for him, and he also seeks a general manager to help him with expansion, as he hopes eventually also to operate a car dealership at the Verona location.
For now, he’s growing consistently and steadily, and his mobilized business has him in demand locally.
“I’m taking my time and just making sure I have the right people around me,” he said. “The main thing with our business is just to prevent customers from having to pay crazy amounts of money to have scratches or dings removed.”